Una Piñata

We had a great idea for IMBD this year. Bird piñatas with free giveaways! We sat and talked about how we could make our event in Boulder a little more inviting for Latino families in the surrounding community. After talking about it some, we came to the conclusion that adding some festive games would make it feel more welcoming. A big part of the reason that families gather is for the celebration of life events; birthdays, marriages, baby showers and so on. Ever since I could remember, my family parties have always been exciting and something I looked forward to, I would get to see family members that I hadn’t seen in what felt like years and we always had delicious food and fun games we would play.

All it takes is a balloon, poster board, toilet paper rolls and paper mache!

Not to long ago we had a birthday party for my cousins’ kids whom are 4 and 5-year-old girls. We hosted my large family at our home and my cousin hired a full time taquero for the whole night. We had beer for the grown-ups and candy for the little ones and we even had a pick game of volleyball going on in the middle of the street. No expense was sparred. We had such a great time and everyone had left my house full and happy.

Long, recurved beak!

That’s the kind of experience I would like to bring to the IMBD event at Walden Ponds. During the party we had a piñata for the kids. Kids love piñatas no matter where they’re from or what language they speak. Piñatas bring us back to an earlier time in our lives where we would play with friends and family and celebrate events with them. That’s where the idea of the piñata at IMBD came from. The piñata had to incorporate the spotlight species for 2016, one of which is the large-beaked Whimbrel.

Finished product!

After some research, I put together a short manual that illustrates how to build a Whimbrel piñata. It’s simple and it only requires materials that you could find at any school or crafts store. It only took me a week to construct and it looks great! Make sure you check out the EFTA website to download the manual and make one for yourself!